http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
TAKING AIM at the Reverend Jesse Jackson is almost too easy. First there was the revelation of the
once-and-future moral crusader's illicit sexual liaison and love-child, then there was his lengthy four-day
retirement from public life in remorse for the incident.

It's easy, but worth doing. Not to pile on Jackson for a sin that has beset so many other people in leadership
positions, but because Jackson's cheap repentance reveals what has become the moral bankruptcy of much of
the civil rights establishment. And that revelation is especially important at a time when a new administration in
Washington means there's a possibility of reaching out to new black leaders who really do care about the plight
of black Americans.

Jesse Jackson has done the very thing that has proven most devastating to the black community he claims to
lead. He has fathered a child out-of-wedlock. Yes, he says he will be an emotional support to his daughter, and
he'll certainly be a financial one. But the fact remains, he has abandoned his child to what has been a
particularly pernicious problem in black America - single-motherdom. In other words, as columnist Marjorie
Williams of the Washington Post put it in addressing this issue, "It's the Child, Stupid."

But Jackson took only four days to "examine" and "repent" of his actions before jumping back into public life
with the board of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition firmly behind him. (It helped to have the mainstream press
largely give him a pass on the scandal.) In so doing Jackson and his backers sent a dangerous signal,
particularly to young black men and women, that what he did is no big deal - when in fact it routinely has terribly
destructive consequences.

Yet for these folks, putting ego and desire for power ahead of what is good for those who look to them for
leadership is an old story. Jackson and fellow far-left black "leaders" like U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, Al
Sharpton and others regularly spew racial hatred, divisiveness and victimology. From essentially justifying the
Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, to virtually accusing George W. Bush of being behind the horrific dragging
death of James Byrd, to making totally unsubstantiated claims of racially motivated voter harassment in Florida,
such folks consistently sow the worst kind of racial distrust and bigotry. But of course that's necessary to their
continued power and prestige.

I can't pretend to speak for black Americans, or to understand their history of discrimination. But I can speak for
the decent white Americans of today, by far the overwhelming majority of us, who would love nothing more than
to see blacks prosper and succeed, both economically and in a thriving family and community life. Who far from
being prejudiced, wholly desire an end to racial animosity. Who really do want to see men and women judged
not "... by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." And there is ample evidence that there are
millions of black Americans who want exactly that - their voices just aren't as loud as Jackson's and his cronies.

But today President Bush has a great opportunity to change that by using the White House to help raise up and
give legitimacy to new black voices. That means meeting with, carefully listening to, and being advised by men
and women who seek genuine racial unity. Many such names are already known - Robert Woodson of the
National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, economics professor Glenn Loury, author Shelby Steele, and JWR columnist and
intellectual Thomas Sowell.

But there are also lesser-known but outstanding black servants like Herb Lusk, a former running back for the
Philadelphia Eagles and Pastor of the Greater Exodus Baptist Church in Philadelphia with its 2,000 members.

Lusk is a Christian man of great compassion who eschews the divisiveness of the establishment black
leadership. He even broke with its orthodoxy to support George W. Bush for pPresident. But, he says, the vast
majority of his parishioners did not, though they overwhelmingly back major Republican positions like being
pro-life.

Surely these are people who've been scared by angry rhetoric - but who could
be reached with a genuine message of inclusiveness. Political considerations aside, it is utterly immoral for
good people to abandon these Americans to the racial demagoguery so often espoused by today's entrenched
black spokesmen.

But, in helping to give a high public profile to the Herb Lusks of America, instead of the Jesse Jacksons, the
Bush administration could more effectively reach out to the black community - and ensure that new black voices
of good will are finally heard loud and
clear.

JWR contributor Betsy Hart, a frequent commentator on CNN and the Fox News Channel, can be reached by clicking here.

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